


Homecoming

by suludemora



Category: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Canonical Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-03 01:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4081984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suludemora/pseuds/suludemora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Knoll returns to Grado, where he dedicates himself to rebuilding it and fulfilling Lyon's vision. When the country is restored to its former glory, he disappears without a trace, never to be seen again." -Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones epilogue. </p>
<p>Knoll only stays in Grado for as long as he is needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> I developed maternal feelings for Knoll over the course of the game and almost screamed when I read his ending because, really? Can I have a Fire Emblem fav who doesn't have an ambiguous fate at the end? So here's me, making his ending less ambiguous and slightly more heartbreaking, with bonus implied and probably unrequited Knoll/Lyon.

He wasn't sure, at first, if he was done. For weeks, he wandered across the kingdom, taking odd jobs here and there. There was never anything big, no wreckage to clean up, no chasms to bridge, no broken homes to rebuild. He didn't even notice for the first few days. After all, not every day in the past few years had been filled with work.

Months later, Knoll finally accepted that Grado was back on its feet. There was little use for him in the kingdom now. Eirika and Ephraim had been clear that he was welcome to stay with them in Renais, and the new court of Grado would hardly turn away one of the mages who unlocked the secret of foreseeing the future. It wasn't as if he had no place to go.

Knoll had never called Renais home, so his refusal to reside there was unsurprising, if disappointing to its ruling twins. The pair assumed he would remain in Grado and wished him well.

The mage never bothered to tell them that he would not be living in Grado, either.

The realization came to him slowly over the years he spent helping Grado's people after the landslide. Grado had never been his home, either. He puzzled over this as he pulled weary families to their feet and drove the last monsters away from the barely-surviving settlements. Knoll cared not for the kingdom or the land. He cared for the people, but it had not always been this way. Not until he met Lyon.

The shy, caring prince had loved his people beyond anyone Knoll had ever seen. Though they used the same magic, Lyon was vastly different from the court mages Knoll worked with daily, and not just because he was the prince of Grado. That wasn't to say that the court mages were all callous and selfish; they simply balanced the kingdom's needs with their own. When Knoll first met Lyon, his needs seemed to consist of one thing only: to meet the needs of the people. There were other desires as well, as Knoll discovered throughout his years working alongside the prince, but his selflessness and determination to serve his people outshone them all.

Lyon's love and devotion for Grado's people must have leaked onto Knoll at some point. Yet, the mage never loved the people as if they were his own. He did not love them as a family, as something that he belonged to. Knoll loved them the same way he imagined an artist loved their creations. When he was finished, he had no reason to remain any longer.

It was time for him to go home.

Knoll bid farewell to his friends, who responded with cheery goodbyes and well-wishes, not knowing that this time, there would not be a greeting to follow. Cormag, Duessel, and Amelia had grown used to the mage disappearing to weeks to months at a time, only to return exhausted and with more stories of the rebuilding of Grado. He let them believe that he would be returning. Knoll wasn't sure how to handle goodbyes.

He packed lightly and headed east, stopping in villages and towns to be sure that his work was finished. It had been a rocky journey, but Grado was as prosperous as it had ever been. Lyon would be proud.

Knoll was recognized by many grateful families, so he was never wanting for food and shelter. When the time came for him to continue on, the mage would slip away quietly, leaving enough gold to cover the families' expenses. He had far too much treasure left over from the war and needed none of it.

He passed by the border of Jehanna and stopped there for some time, wondering if he should cross it and make his way to the castle. Natasha would be troubled by his disappearance, he knew, and would likely cope better if he visited one last time. The cleric had always been sharp, however, and would doubtlessly be able to tell that there was something different about his goodbye. Knoll passed by without entering the nation of warriors.

The road grew harder as he ventured father away from Grado. The people were less accommodating to a weary practitioner of dark magic. His light accent made it clear that he hailed from the country that had sparked a war across all of Magvel. If he hadn't had any gold, Knoll would have been unable to press on.

A year ago, he would have wondered why leaving the land he grew up in didn't affect him. He knew better now.

Home had been in Grado, but it had never been Grado. Home left Grado before Knoll knew what it was, leaving him curiously empty. He knew he had to leave, but he knew he couldn't leave without seeing to Grado's people. Lyon's people.

He finally arrived in the Darkling Woods. The manakete, Myrrh, was surprised but not displeased to see him. Knoll asked her to keep his presence in the woods a secret, and though she seemed loathe to lie to Ephraim, a frequent visitor, she relented. Knoll wondered what about his plea convinced her.

Deep within the woods, there was a foreboding castle. Though the Demon King's body had been destroyed, the few visitors that the woods received usually gave the area a wide berth. So much the better. Knoll approached the entrance. Any irrational fears of a dead monstrosity were overshadowed by a sense of relief. The forest's inhabitants left the castle alone, so it was quiet and still when he entered. He made his way to the back of the large chamber.

Knoll didn't give the interior room a second glance. He knelt on the floor, his back to the chamber where he and the twins' army defeated the Demon King, and rested a hand on a metal plate embedded in the ground.

The people of Grado had to lay the blame somewhere. They would never have allowed Lyon to be buried in the capitol or anywhere else in the kingdom. Besides, Knoll did not want to risk the prince's grave in the landslide that was to come. Selfish, he knew, especially since there had been living, breathing people at risk by simply living in Grado. He did what he could for the ruined cities after the disaster for as long as he was needed. In all that time, he never felt like he belonged.

Seated on the floor next to Lyon's memorial, Knoll felt that he was at home for the first time in years. 

 


End file.
